For various reasons associated in particular with greater comfort of use (softness, emollience and the like), current cosmetic compositions are usually in the form of an emulsion of the oil-in-water (O/W) type consisting of an aqueous-dispersing-continuous phase and an oily-dispersed-discontinuous phase, or of an emulsion of the water-in-oil (W/O) type consisting of an oily-dispersing-continuous phase and an aqueous-dispersed-discontinuous phase. O/W emulsions are the ones most sought in the cosmetics field, since O/W emulsions comprise an aqueous phase as external phase, which gives them, when applied to the skin, a fresher, less greasy and lighter feel than W/O emulsions.
As water-in-oil (W/O) emulsion systems are close to the skin's hydrolipid film, they are more effective from the dermatological viewpoint. This emulsion type promotes the long lasting moisturizing efficacy by providing an occlusive film and reinforces the active ingredients into the stratum corneum. In addition, W/O emulsions leave a lipophilic film on the skin surface which ensures high water repellency, which is an important parameter to maintain high UV protection in sun care applications. Nevertheless, tackiness, combined with greasiness and slow spreading are key factors which tend to decrease cosmetic acceptance, thus counteracting W/O emulsion benefits.
Therefore, it is desirable to provide a meta-stable cosmetic composition that is applied as an oil-in-water (O/W) emulsion which quickly inverts to a water-in-oil emulsion (W/O) upon rubbing into the skin and that is pleasing to consumers.
A meta-stable cosmetic composition, product, and method of using the meta-stable cosmetic composition that do not suffer from one or more of the above drawbacks would be desirable in the art.